


No Man Is An Island

by jesileigh



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Action, Angst, Anxiety, Depression, F/M, Gen, PTSD, Prison, mention of sex trafficking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 22:24:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9569390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesileigh/pseuds/jesileigh
Summary: When Felicity is arrested and imprisoned on federal charges for leaking information she finds on the flash drive given to her by Kojo Sledgehammer, Oliver must find a way to help her before it's too late.Season 5 SpecCanon up to 5x11





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I have five other fics in progress.  
> No I don't care because this idea has been begging me to write it down since Wednesday night.  
> Also the title might change. I'm not in love with it.

“Information leaked from an anonymous source alleges that six high-ranking officials are involved in a worldwide sex trafficking ring involving up to a thousand young girls between the ages of ten and twenty years old. If the information proves to be true, those accused face long prison sentences. The informant has yet to be identified, though the tip seems to have been gleaned from classified documents from the NSA.”

“Wow,” the barista said, her attention focused solely on the television screen mounted behind Felicity’s head. Felicity turned to glance at the broadcast before hastily extending her money to the girl.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty messed up world we live in, huh?” she said. The barista nodded and smiled at her as she rang her up.

“Your usual Miss Smoak?” she asked, and Felicity gave a jerky nod. “Are you okay? I just don’t see you around much since--well since Palmer Tech let you go--” she dropped her voice to a whisper, leaning in across the counter. “You just don’t seem like yourself, is all.”

“No, yeah I’m fine. Totally fine,” Felicity said unconvincingly. “I don’t get downtown much anymore is all. Only when I have to go to city hall and--”

“You still spend time with Mayor Queen?” the girl asked, just short of a squeal. Felicity plastered on a tight-lipped smile and nodded.

“We’re still friends, Lynsey-- _just_ friends.” Lynsey nodded and handed Felicity her change, her face falling again. Before Genesis Day and Felicity’s subsequent firing, she had seen Felicity in the coffee shop at least twice a day. They had struck up a pseudo-friendship, or at least they made easy conversation. Now it was rare that Felicity was ever in the neighborhood, but she always made an effort to stop in to say hi when she was.

“Well I’m still rooting for you,” Lynsey said with a wink as she handed Felicity her latte. “You two gave the rest of us hope.” Felicity swallowed down the lump in her throat, and nodded shortly again, unsure of how to respond to that. It’s not like Lynsey knew that the distance between Felicity and Oliver had grown into a gaping chasm in the months following Billy’s death. Nor was she about to unload on the poor, unsuspecting barista. She wasn’t sure Oliver even knew just how far Felicity had fallen, and that’s how she preferred it. He was busy chasing Prometheus and training the new team and she was busy with a mission of her own. A little book of names of her own, even.

  
Kojo Sledgehammer had found Felicity at a time when she had never felt so helpless, so unable to control of her life, so unfulfilled. She’d extolled her for all of the good she’d done in college. All the corruption she’d brought to light. The horrible people she’d brought down with just a stroke of the keyboard. With the gift of a flash drive, she’d spurred Felicity into wanting to do more--to _be_ more. It wasn’t that working with Team Arrow wasn’t doing any good, but it wasn’t enough. She knew she had wasted her potential working as a lapdog for the corporate world. She knew she had the ability to combat evil on a much wider scale; ‘to spark a revolution’ as Kojo had said. And so she’d opened Pandora and begun to comb its secrets.

Upon discovery of a dossier that covered up a worldwide sex trafficking ring, with several congressmen and government agents in leadership, she knew she had made the right choice. It took her a mere fifteen minutes between deciding what to do with the information and then doing it. Sending it off to all major news outlets from coast to coast. And then the dominoes began to fall. All the while Oliver had been scrimmaging with the new Black Canary while Curtis made some changes to his dampener and Rory and Rene shared some dinner. Nobody had a clue that Felicity had just taken the first step in toppling a very far-reaching tower of corruption.

That night was the first time since Genesis Day that Felicity had managed a dreamless sleep. The 30,000 souls of Havenrock had given her a night off. A reprieve. She had done some good and for once she felt like it. Like a little fragment of the broken person she’d become had begun to heal.

Now she watched the television screen as they cut to a live shot of one of the six accused spouting off about his innocence. A sharp, hot spike of anger flared within her as he denied his involvement, as he refuted the evidence to the contrary. Felicity’s eyes narrowed and her breathing sped up as she watched, feeling unadulterated hate overcome her. She basked in it. It had been so long since she’d allowed herself to _feel_ that particular emotion. Ever since she’d dyed her hair blonde and traded in her black clothes for the bright and happy look that had become her trademark. She had locked up the rage deep inside of her and threw away the key. She’d become Felicity--the bright, bubbly ray of sunshine everyone new her to be. But this man--this absolute _monster_ was going down if it was the last thing she did.

“Felicity?” A familiar voice pulled her from her internal monologue and she jumped when she noticed Oliver standing beside her. “Hey.”

“Oliver--hi,” she said. “Sorry, I just--can you believe this guy?” She waved her hand at the screen and Oliver took a glance, his eyebrow raised.

“Oh yeah, everyone at city hall is talking about that. Some kind of NSA leak.” He tilted his head to study her and she became very aware of how on-edge she felt. “You were supposed to come up to my office a little bit ago,” he said in his soft, Felicity-only voice.

“Got distracted,” she said apologetically. “Sorry.”

“That’s fine, I could use some coffee anyway,” he said, signalling to Lynsey to whip up his usual. She nodded with a bright smile on her face as she watched the two of them and went about putting together Oliver’s order. “Should we take a seat?” He asked, motioning to a table for two near the window. Felicity nodded and slid into the seat, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants and fiddling with her cup, her rapt attention still on the news. Lynsey brought over Oliver’s drink and a plate with a couple of pastries on it for the two of them and Oliver flashed his Mayor Queen Smile at her.

“On the house,” Lynsey explained. “For my favorite customers.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Always appreciated.” Lynsey smiled and bowed out, returning to the counter to take another customer’s order and Felicity found Oliver’s attention back on her.

“What was it that you needed to see me about anyway?” Felicity asked. “It couldn’t wait until tonight?” Oliver shrugged and slid his hand across the table towards her but stopped just short of actually making contact.

“Do I need an excuse to see a friend?” He asked. Felicity raised an eyebrow at him in suspicion and waited for him to elaborate. “I wanted to check in. I feel like we don’t ever get a moment with just the two of us anymore.”

“I’m fine, Oliver,” she sighed. “We’ve all been busy.”

“I know, I just--if you need to talk or anything I just want you to know that I’m here.”

“Thanks,” she said flatly, fighting the lump growing in her throat again. She took a breath and let it out again, something in her screaming to tell him the truth. To open up about Kojo and Pandora and all of the information she’d been given. Instead she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. He had enough on his plate without worrying about all of the federal laws she’d been breaking lately. Besides, he was the mayor. The very last thing he needed was to be involved on something this incredibly illegal. At least he could claim ignorance if it ever came back to bite her in the ass.

“Felicity--”  
“I said I’m fine,” she snapped. Oliver pulled his hand back quickly, as far away from her as possible, and she felt a lead weight settle in her stomach.

“Right. That’s--good. I’ll just see you tonight, then?” Felicity nodded, her eyes on her paper coffee cup instead of on him as he stood up and began to push his chair in.

“Yeah, I’ll see you--” she began, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a flurry of movement storming through the front doors of the cafe, shouts filling the small seating area.

 

“Hands where we can see them!” Felicity jumped up and turned as Oliver moved to shield her from the five or six men dressed head to toe in tactical gear with guns pointed directly at the two of them.

“What is going on here?” Oliver demanded.

“Out of the way, sir. We’re not here for you,” one of the men informed him. Waving his gun at him to get him to step aside. Another man moved forward and pushed past Oliver to where Felicity stood in shock, her hands trembling above her head.

“Felicity Smoak you’re under arrest for espionage, sedition and theft of government property. On your knees, hands on your head.”

Somewhere she could hear Oliver’s outraged protests, see him fighting to get to her as the armed men held him back. His voice sounded so far away, as did the voice of the man reciting her rights to her, because all she could hear was a buzzing in her ears. The man yanked her arms around to handcuff her and hauled her to her feet. She stumbled as she let him lead her out the door, her eyes searching for Oliver, pleading with him not to do anything stupid. She caught his eye as she passed over the threshold and in five years she had never seen him look so wildly desperate.

As the agent shoved her forcefully into the back of a black, unmarked car she heard Oliver shouting for her and closed her eyes tightly, fighting back the tears that threatened her. Fighting with everything in her not to look back at him as they drove away. She made it two minutes before the tears began to fall.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments make me so very happy! Please leave a reply if you enjoyed this!


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